The committee is now focusing on de Blasio's affordable-housing plan, which aims to build 80,000 units and preserve another 120,000 by 2024.

Smith's role, which will be formally announced on Friday, will mirror the one another political operative, Josh Gold, took on during the pre-kindergarten fight in Albany last year. After the pre-K fight ended, no one assumed the role of political director.

Smith has close ties to the de Blasio administration, having worked with the mayor's intergovernmental affairs director, Emma Wolfe, in winning a Democratic majority in the State Senate in 2008.

Unlike an electoral campaign, which is subject to the stringent limits of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, this organization allows de Blasio to raise unlimited funds from outside parties to promote his agenda.

The fund is paying for much of his recent travel throughout the country to tout his progressive ideals, including trips to Nebraska and Iowa and an upcoming excursion to California.

De Blasio's travel to Washington next week to unveil a national progressive agenda and push the federal government for more transportation funds will be paid for by city taxpayer dollars, his aides said.

CORRECTION: The original version of this article has been changed to refer to Campaign for One New York as a political organization, rather than a political action committee. Language has also been changed to make clear that the organization raises money for de Blasio's issue-based campaigns, not for future campaigns for office.